Breaking News: Young Girls Exploited for Sex in the UK

Link: Revealed: The horrific trade in British children for sex [Independent.co.uk]

This story has been in the news all week and this article is one of the less racist or alarmist pieces I have read on the matter.  It is surely an alarming matter when school girls are lured from their homes by charming older men who groom them and then share them amongst their friends as sex slaves; it is just a pity that it took this case involving a schoolgirl from Manchester to convince the public that slavery and sexual exploitation of children is alive and well in the United Kingdom. 

Actually, I wonder if even this case, as widely reported as it has been, will bring sufficient attention to the matter.  You just need to look on the resources page for the National Working Group for sexually exploited children and young people to see that they have been trying to draw attention to the matter of child sexual exploitation and pimping for some time now.  So why has this case drawn attention?  No doubt it is the racial element, the fact that in this case, Asian men abused a white girl.  That simply does not help.  Child abusers come from all walks of life and they prey indiscriminately on children and young people.  The victims just have to fit one profile and that is to be young, innocent and vulnerable. 

Joanne, because she is now 18, is no longer of any interest to her former pimp, says her mother. The teenager is mentally scarred, homeless and drug addicted. "She's not a child any more, so they're not interested. They've used her up and thrown her out. One of them said to her: 'In five years' time you'll be a crackhead out on the street and I'll be cruising with another 14-year-old.' Five years down the line, she is on drugs, on the streets. He – like he told her – is cruising with another 14-year-old." – Independent.co.uk, 15 August 2010

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Eight Days

Link:  How long can you ignore a screaming baby?

Merely days ago I was wondering what type of person it takes to sit in your lounge watching TV while your child lies locked up in the next room, starving to death.  This pondering was based on an actual event and much of the musing in that post was triggered by this story and this story.

Well, whatever I was wondering about then barely compares to the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach after reading this article.  This puts a whole different spin on motive and reason.  On the one hand you have an ignorant, selfish b***h of a mother but on the other hand... my naive little mind is having to acknowledge the reality of deep, severe malice.  Hatred, vitriol, cruelty and evil-hearted intentions.

In this article the authors cites Ania Wilczynski's research into parent's who kill their children and notes that she:

"identified 11 reasons why parents kill, including revenge, jealousy and rejection. However the most common reason is an effort to discipline". 

I'm going to take some blogging license here and really generalise, but from what I've heard, read and experienced about abused children, they are usually children afraid of their own shadows.

I think its because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe its because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud - Suzanne Vega, Luka

Abused children are often obsessed with keeping the balance, not upsetting the parent(s) and being quiet or invisible.  To write this off as primarily disciplinary in nature or to give any credence to a parent's claims or justification that it began as discipline, is a huge disservice to children.  It sets the fight against child abuse back 40 years. 

Children are helpless, innocent and fragile.  Humans look after their children for over 10 years because a child would most likely not survive out in the wild alone.  Sure there are feral children, but for every feral child there are probably 10 or 100 that have died of starvation or exposure.  Our duty towards children is to protect them, to nurture them and to love them unconditionally.  Believe it or not, love is actually necessary for the human child.  In babies' homes for very young orphans, volunteers are called in to simply hold the babies.  Human babies struggle to thrive without milk, warmth and human contact.  You just need to read any one of Torey Hayden's books to see the miraculous effect that a little love and guidance can have on a damaged child.

My rather drawn out point is that we are the adults.  We are here to protect the children, we are not here to abuse them.  There is no excuse for abuse and "discipline" simply does not describe a campaign of methodical neglect, malice and violence. 

I ask one more time.  How do you sit in the next room while your child is in the next room (or closet) starving to death?

And finally, because I'm turning 35 this year, I'm going to exercise my right to post really sad Whitney Houston lyrics from my youth (sad as in... wow, how could I?)

I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be - Whitney Houston, Greatest Love of All

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Children Are Our Future

Link:  Digging deep at Haut de la Garenne

This story is just emerging but I expect that over the days and weeks to come, we'll come to know the full horror of it.  In a nutshell, police began to investigate a children's home on the island of Jersey in 2006.  There were investigating allegations of child sexual and physical abuse which were detailed here.  I'm not certain why there was a huge gap in time between police finding out about the abuse in 2006 and then the news getting hold of it in December 2007.  I'll be charitable and say that must be the "covert" investigations that the police were purportedly undertaking.  I'm not usually  a critic of the police but I have to admit that in this case, it feels like a couple of kids abused in the 60s, 70s and 80s simply wasn't a priority for them.

Something changed.  A couple of days ago the police received a tip off and it lead them to discover human remains in the house.  A child's remains to be precise.  Now they are breaking into rooms and digging into cellars and there are definite panic stations.

Now of course, many people are drumming up the courage to contact police to tell them of their own abuse.  Based on several reports of a basement area, the police have begun, as I said, to dig into the bricked up cellars and underground rooms and this is where my mind slammed on the brakes.  I am fully aware that my imagination is running riot, but I am envisaging an underground torture chamber and I cannot reconcile that with the fact that this place was a children's home.

"A nation's progress can be judged by how they treat their animals." -Gandhi

This quotation has been used by many people over the years to pass comment on the treatment of children, the poor, the workers and so on.  I reckon that animals are treated better than many children today.  The biggest love in my life (after Le Husband) is my dogs and cats and animal abuse sickens me but that simply pales when you hear about what people do to babies and children.

Take a quick look at this list over at Bonnie's Blog of Crime.  Bonnie focuses mainly on US cases but how about the UK?  Victoria Climbie (deceased), unnamed child, Jessica Randall (deceased), Ryan Hawkins (deceased), Baby Duncan, Hugo Wang (deceased), Jade Hart (deceased), Aaron Gilbert (deceased), Ainlee Walker (deceased), and Kimberley Baker (deceased).

All of the questions regarding how this happens and how come the schools, social workers and family do nothing to stop it are relevant; but I wonder what it is that switches in a human being's brain to allow them to commit such cruelty?  I am aware that those people who are sexually or physically abused often grow up to do the same themselves, I know that people often feel so powerless in their lives that they will take out their rage and fury on any unwitting victim, I know that parenthood can be so frustrating sometimes and that a screaming baby or child can send one over the edge; but how on Earth do you sit and knit or watch TV or converse with your spouse / parent / friend while your child starves to death in the next room?  The next room which you have locked. 

I am quite sure it is not a short process, starving to death, and a child must cry and scream and bang to be let out.  Unless you have beaten them into submission and they die alone and afraid.  Like I said, I know there are psychosocial factors that lead a person to abuse another being, be it physical, emotional or sexual abuse; but has the time not come when we, as a postmodern, enlightened society admit that some acts are acts of pure evil and criminality.  If these acts exist, would this not mean that such criminals could not be rehabilitated because rehabilitation in itself suggests that there was once a state of normalcy and functioning?  In other words, if an act is purely criminal and the possibility exists that the perpetrator is therefore purely criminal, is it not then impossible to "rehabilitate"? 

"Rehabilitation means; To restore to useful life, as through therapy and education" - Wikipedia

You can't restore an object to a state it did not previously occupy.  There are other words for what you can do, with altogether different definitions.

I wonder what this means for the death penalty argument?  I would definitely need to reassess my reasoning regarding criminal acts and evil people before I entered into such an argument.

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